Facebook Usage among Urban Indigenous Youth at Risk in Ontario

Abstract

Statement of the problem: Indigenous youth in Canada are much more likely to be either physically and/or psychologically at risk than other population groups in the same age range. However, help for indigenous youth at risk frequently arrives too late: it often takes too long for family, friends, community, and government to identify the indigenous youth who are at risk. Another problem is that it takes some time for anyone who is voluntarily seeking help to inform their closely connected family and friends about their at-risk situations. Besides these barriers, some conditions are associated with social stigmas especially drug addiction and mental ill-health. The delayed identification of indigenous youth at risk poses great challenges for how to provide them with assistance and treatment. Research questions: This research aims to answer four questions: (i) How are indigenous organizations using Facebook to connect with youth at risk? (ii) How are urban indigenous youth expressing themselves on Facebook when they feel or are at risk? (iii) In what ways can the text mining of indigenous organizations’ Facebook data identify the risks among urban indigenous youth and at-risk individuals? (iv) How can the findings from the research question # 1, # 2, and # 3 be adapted to enable Facebook’s News Feed algorithm to address the needs of at risk urban indigenous youth? Research methodology: This research used mixed methods for data collection. Qualitative data was obtained from field surveys that were conducted in the form of interviews, focus group discussions and observations. For the quantitative data collection, I gathered and analyzed the Facebook usage data of indigenous community organizations to discover their Facebook patterns using text mining techniques available in the SAS Visual Analytics application. Lastly, all theparticipants in focus group discussions were asked to answer a survey questionnaire seeking information related to his or her demographic and personal Facebook usage behaviour. Significant findings: Many urban indigenous youths generate and share content on Facebook when they feel at risk physically or psychologically. Yet they do not see any content in their Facebook News Feed that is relevant or helpful to them for managing that risk, such as pointers to health and public services. This investigation also discovered that there are indicators such as the verbal tone of Facebook posts and images as well as changes in relationship status that could be used to help identify at-risk youth and provide them with helpful information. The research results also reveal that Facebook is a part of the problem insofar as it is a channel for such behaviours as cyberbullying, online harassment and the spread of harmful memes. Contribution: The results from this research, when deployed, may help to improve the lives of indigenous communities by enabling the detection of youth who are at risk physically and/or physiologically and provide the necessary indicators for Facebook to adapt its News Feeds to bias the Facebook walls of the youth at risk with items such as positive posts found in their own cycle of Facebook friends’ accounts and targeted news and advertising that can improve social outcomes for these populations.